This invention relates to the field of surgical devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a surgical access port, which provides a gas-tight seal for a hand or instrument to be inserted through the opening into a patient's body cavity.
Abdominal surgery typically involves an incision in the abdominal wall large enough to accommodate a surgeon's hands, multiple instruments, and illumination of the body cavity. While large incisions simplify access to the body cavity during a surgery, they also increase trauma, require extended recovery time, and can result in unsightly scars. In response to these drawbacks, minimally invasive surgical methods have been developed.
In minimally invasive abdominal surgery, several smaller incision are made into the abdominal wall. One of the openings is use to inflate the abdominal cavity with gas, which lifts the abdominal wall away from underlying organs and provides space to perform the desired surgery. This process is referred to as insufflation of the body cavity. Additional openings can be used to accommodate instruments for illuminating and viewing the cavity, as well as instruments involved in actually performing the surgery, e.g., instruments to manipulate, cut, or resect organs and tissue. While minimally invasive surgical methods overcome certain drawbacks of traditional methods, there are still various disadvantages. In particular, there is limited tactile feedback from the manipulated tissue to the surgeon hands. Also, tissue that is to be removed from the body cavity must be removed in pieces that are small enough to fit through one of the incisions.
Recently, new surgical methods have been developed that combine the advantages of the traditional and minimally invasive methods. In these new methods, small incisions are still used to inflate, illuminate, and view the body cavity, but in addition, an intermediate incision is made into the abdominal wall to accommodate the surgeon's hand. The intermediate incision must be properly retracted to provide a suitable-sized opening, and the perimeter of the opening is typically protected with a surgical drape to prevent bacterial infection. A sealing mechanism is also required to prevent the loss of insufflation gases while the surgeon's hand is either inserted into or removed from the body cavity though the retracted incision.